Judge OKs death-penalty prosecution

GRANTS, N.M. {AP} A judge on Friday granted two of three prosecution grounds for seeking the death penalty against a man accused of murdering a deputy sheriff who was driving him to prison.

District Attorney Mike Runnels had filed the notice of the death-penalty prosecution against Michael Archuleta in July and petitioned the court on three grounds shooting a peace officer during the lawful performance of duty, murder of a witness and killing in the process of escape from a penal institution.

Archuleta is accused of killing Sierra County Deputy Kelly Clark last March 4 while she was transporting him from the Truth or Consequences jail to the prison in Grants.

Arite disallowed the third option Friday, apparently because the patrol car in which Archuleta was being transported does not qualify as a penal institution, Runnels said.

But state law only requires one prescribed grounds for a death penalty prosecution, and Arite approved two of them, Runnels said after the hearing.

"We have crossed the second hurdle procedurally we're going to be able to proceed in this case as a death penalty case. We felt the death penalty was appropriate in this case," Runnels said, "and we particularly felt it was appropriate since a police officer was involved."

Authorities have said Archuleta freed his handcuffs from a waist belt as he sat in the back of Clark's cruiser, reached through a sliding window in a plastic divider, grabbed the officer's handgun and shot her.

After the shooting, the patrol car veered out of control across the freeway median and struck a tractor-trailer rig, and Archuleta then used the deputy's gun to commandeer another car passing on Interstate 40, officers said.

He fled to Albuquerque, where he was captured about an hour later.

The 20-year-old pleaded innocent to in state district court to charges of murder, assault with intent to commit a violent felony, escape and disarming a peace officer. He was also charged with kidnap, assault with intent to commit a felony and unlawful taking of a motor vehicle in connection with stopping the other motorist.